Offensive Lines Dominate on A-Day!

War Eagle, everybody! It was a record-setting A-Day yesterday, with a stunning crowd of over 83,000 fans in the stadium to cheer on their Tigers! We suspected that the game might be well-attended, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for fall game-day type numbers. That this happened following a disastrous 3-9 season speaks volumes about the resilience of the Auburn faithful!

I was determined to get in the stadium early, and AubTigerman and I were rewarded with good seats near the 40 yard line. We entered the stadium at 11:15 AM, and many of the best seats were already taken, nearly two hours before kickoff! In addition to getting good seats, we were able to watch a pretty long, extended warmup. There were a number of interesting new wrinkles, including footballs with long tethers to them, where one guy would hold onto the ball, while a second player yanked on the tether, trying to pull the ball out. If it helps cut down on fumbles, I’m all for it!

The single most exciting aspect of warmups was watching Dameyune once again throwing the ball in Jordan Hare Stadium. It has been far too long since we’ve enjoyed that!

After the extended warmup, the fans were treated to a pretty exciting first half where 49 points were scored in 24 minutes. The Orange took a 35-14 lead to the locker room, largely because the first team offense pretty much overpowered the second team defense. What was very interesting, and worrisome was that the second team offense moved the ball on the first team defense, thus the 14 points for the Blue. The first team defensive line had good plays in spurts, but was not consistent. The starting offensive line against the backup defensive line might have been described as “child abuse.” I think we all would have liked to have seen at least one series of “ones vs. ones.” Is our starting O-line really that good? Should we be really worried about the defensive line guys? In the defenses’ defense, their schemes were pretty vanilla, with almost no blitzing and no stems. Meanwhile, the offense was free to run misdirection, pull guards, and use lots of motion. Wasn’t really a very fair matchup for the defense.

The most unexpected thing for me in this game was the success the second team offensive line had against the starting defensive line. At times, these guys drove the starters back, and they pass protected pretty well for the most part. Those backups from left to right were Shon Coleman, Devonte Danzy, Tunde Fariyike, Jordan Diamond and Shane Callahan. The stat that jumped out to me was that when Cameron Artis-Payne played with the Blues, he averaged 8 yards per carry! The second line’s most glaring error was their first play, where the snap went right by quarterback Jonathan Wallace and was scooped by the defense for a touchdown. I’m not sure who’s to blame for that one. Clearly Wallace wasn’t ready for the snap, but he did raise his right foot, which is pretty much the universal “snap it now” signal. It wasn’t really a high snap, going right past Wallace’s head. Fariyike did have a high snap later, but the quarterback brought it down anyway.

Second team line is getting after it!

Those expecting an answer to the Auburn quarterback race likely left the game disappointed. There were good things and bad things about both candidates, but in my mind neither really shined. Neither guy had much pressure on them, and yet we saw plenty of missed throws by both guys. There were only two sacks in the game, no quarterback hurries, and lots of quick screens to the sideline. You’d like to see a lot better completion percentage than 60.8 against the second team defense, when there’s absolutely no pressure on the quarterback.

With Corey Grant out for the game with a fever, and Tre Mason limited all spring with a bad ankle, this was JUCO transfer running back Cameron Artis-Payne’s time to shine. He earned offensive MVP honors with a 164 yard day, including 117 on the ground. He was not stopped for a loss all day. His most impressive receiving play was when he reached back to snag an errant dump-off pass from Khiel Frazier, maintained his balance while eluding a tackler at the line of scrimage, and burst upfield for 42 yards. He was run down from behind by Jonathan Jones, but held onto the ball despite a blind side hit.

One of the more talked about plays of the day happened early in the 3rd quarter. Khiel Frazier lobbed a (not so) quick screen out to Dimitri Reese, and Jonathan Mincy raced in and broke the play up with authority. And in the eyes of the officials, a little TOO much authority! Mincy was flagged for “targeting a defenseless receiver,” and ejected from the game. I think being ejected from an A-Day game is a first. It was a hard hit, and Reese was very slow to get up. I couldn’t really tell the nature of the hit at the game, as it was across the field from us. Upon several reviews afterwards, I think this was just a football play. I’m seeing a storm of controversy this coming fall, if the officials are going to eject secondary guys every time there’s a hard hit. We’ll have officials changing game outcomes, and lots of iffy calls, I think.

While I’m on the subject of quick screens, Auburn’s decidedly were not quick yesterday, from either quarterback. It seem to take forever for either guy to get a handle on the ball, and get it out there. This forced the blocking receiver to try and hold a block for five full seconds or more, against pretty athletic corners. It didn’t work terribly well. Many of these passes were also too high, or behind the receiver. This HAS to get better this summer. It needs to be drilled, and drilled, and drilled.

The only special team we saw during the game was the field goal unit. Cody Parkey was 7 for 7 on extra points, but missed both field goal attempts. For those who wanted to see punts and punt fielding, there was quite a bit of work on that during the warmups. Steven Clark is still hanging those punts way up in the air, but he’s not getting a lot of distance. Most of his punts seemed to travel 35-40 yards from the line of scrimmage. Quan Bray and Trovon Reed fielded most of the punts. The way the coaches had it set up, they were fielding every punt around the five yard line. That makes me nervous. Guys should be trained to avoid punts inside the ten yard line, automatically.

Unit by unit look, after the jump!

Defensive Line: I hate to say it, but I was not very impressed with these guys. There was a series or two late in the 2nd quarter where Dee Ford and Jeffery Whitaker got after it and really disrupted the second team offense, but I saw a lot more of the starters getting pushed around, especially early in the game. I do think the decision to move Kenneth Carter to defensive end will pay dividends. Auburn has been missing a big-body, run-stuffing strong side end since Senderrick Marks went out early to the NFL. Carter was going to be sitting on the bench as the 4th or 5th tackle, at best. Carter didn’t look bad at all on A-Day on running plays, but I didn’t notice him much on the pass rush.

Linebacker: Considering that they weren’t allowed to blitz, these guys did a much better job of tracking down ball carriers and squaring them up than at any time, last year. The diving and missing of last year was not observed much, although I did see a few arm tackle attempts, especially from the backups. Cassanova McKinzy and Kris Frost took a lot of the first team snaps, and Jake Holland played sparingly. LaDarius Owens looked pretty good from the backups, and he had to deal with pulling linemen trying to mow him down. Some of the other backups got juked out of their shoes at times.

Star: Both Justin Garrett and Robensen Therezie seemed to be all over the field, making tackles on the line, or dropping in coverage. Both had a pass breakup, but both also turned guys loose in coverage. That little out and up play with the slot receiver or tight end worked repeatedly on these guys. Dimitri Reese and Brandon Fulse had TD catches on that play with no defender even in the same zip code.

Cornerback: I still think we’ve got four or five pretty good corners, and I really like Mincy and Chris Davis’ physical style. They did a lot more jamming of receivers on the line, and came up aggressively after the catch on those quick screens. Joshua Holsey and Jonathan Jones are talented second year guys, and Ryan White looked pretty capable back there, too. Some long passes were allowed, but the quarterbacks did have all day to throw. And on a couple of the long ones the corners were supposed to have safety help over the top, that did not get there.

Safety: Tackling was OK at safety, but coverage was decidedly not very good. On the cover two looks, safeties were usually late getting over on the downfield passes. Auburn could have thrown down the middle to C. J. Uzomah every play, and he would have had 500 yards. No one could cover him. One guy that looked good to me of the reserves was Mack vanGorder. He was smacking some folks late in the game.

Place Kicking: Cody Parkey missed both of his field goal attempts, which was disappointing after he’s reportedly had a great spring. The first one was a 46-yard attempt, and it looked like he hit the bottom of the ball. It fluttered short and to the right. The second attempt missed from 36 yards. An SEC kicker needs to be automatic from inside 40 yards.

Offensive Line: As I stated above, I was pretty impressed with both units here. Alex Kozan looks like a great replacement for the departed John Sullen. Both tackles were rock solid. Patrick Miller looks like a completely different player than last season. He’s gotten a lot stronger, and looked leaner and quicker. The line did pick up one holding penalty on third and a mile. Another guy that really impressed me was Shon Coleman. He did a great job at left tackle for the second unit, and appears to be completely back from the cancer that sidelined him a few years ago. This line should be able to weather the storm this fall, as there appears to be good depth.

Backs: I’ve already singled Artis-Payne out above. Tre Mason did a good job finding seams, and averaged 5.5 yards per carry. He did not look full speed to me, though. Of the reserves, I though Patrick Lymon looked elusive. There were a couple of fumbles lost by the walk-on brigade. Jay Prosch looks as powerful as ever as a lead blocker.

Receivers: I liked the work of both Ricardo Lewis and Quan Bray on the sweep handoffs. The timing looked off on a lot of those, which seemed to give the defense a better chance to react. Blocking by the wide receivers needs to improve. They did ok for the most part on quick screens, but they didn’t help runners downfield much, outside of the tight ends. I did like the blocking of both Brandon Fulse and C. J. Uzomah. There were a number of dropped balls, several by Sammie Coates. On the other hand, Coates made a couple of brilliant leaping catches. Also, guys did a pretty good job on quick screens of handling off-target throws.

Quarterbacks: There was good and bad here. There were some good throws down the field, but an equal amount of bad ones. Khiel Frazier’s still a threat running the ball. He completely froze linebacker Chris Landrum on a touchdown keeper. What’s worrisome about Frazier is high throws, particularly on the quick screens. Maybe he just had a bad day on those. Both quarterbacks had some awkward handoffs, where it looked like the timing was off. Wallace gets a demerit for chunking one up for grabs off his back foot. He threw it high and inside, too, and Ryan Smith had the easy interception on it.

The Tigers ran a couple of wildcat plays, both of which were pretty obvious to the defense when there was no orange shirt on the field for the offense. I still believe that the wildcat is played out, unless you can get into it with without substituting. Quan Bray made a good run on his keeper. Trovon Reed appeared to have open field to the left on his keeper, but turned right into Craig Sanders for a three yard loss.

All and all, it was a fun day for the fans, and the team got in some much-needed work. Certainly some problem areas were exposed, and I’m confident those will be worked on. Here’s one giant salute to all of the Auburn family who came out to support this team, and say goodbye to the oaks at Toomer’s Corner. War Eagle!

.....Still making noise after all these years! Lifetime slacker, dreamer, and miscreant with a knack for calculation. I was born in the United State of Texas, but have spent the majority of my years here amongst the shaded hills of the Tragic City, enjoying glorious smog-enhanced sunsets. In a troubled county, I live in a little slice of paradise between the ridges of Red and Shades Mountains.
I've been an obsessive Auburn football follower since the Punt-Bama-Punt days, and have seen a lot of great football on the Plains. This lazy shirker finally learned the value of hard work and persistence from the fine folks in Auburn, and enjoys his return visits immensely!
Hobbies include guitar-playing (or really just making loud and weird noise on any sort of instrument or object), cooking, computers, tennis, and old-school pen and paper RPGs.
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I sincerely hope that Auburn will start using its deep offensive line. Why Chad Slade is still a starter is a flat out mystery to me. He has no business being a starter and I think that is still some of the favorites being played by the administration. If it’s not, then it’s just flat bad coaching. Slade is by far the weakest link on the starting offensive line. I have always HATED not using depth when you have. With the style that Auburn uses and the tempo being so incredibly important, our offense would greatly benefit from rotating our linemen in and out because of how many plays happen each game. If we don’t take advantage of the enormous depth on our offensive line, we will have multiple injuries on that side of the ball. I cringe at the thought of not using our depth on the OL honestly.

Why Single Slade out when you have no clue about any of the offense Slade is playing next to a freshman but you single Slade out but don’t single any other olineman out you have no clue about the offense the plays being run or anything so be a Auburn fan and don’t bad mouth the players if you have no clue

Oh my…did you just tell me to be a true Auburn man without using those exact words? I’ve got no time for people like you. You have no clue what I know or don’t know so quit it. I can judge production. Hell, anybody with half a brain could judge production from last year and see that the O-Line last season was absolutely wretched. The two worst spots on that line: Sullen and Slade. I’m not bad mouthing the kid. I’m not bad mouthing his character or his classroom performance. I couldn’t judge that with any tangible results. However, I did watch a 2011 season where Slade was less than adequate. So yes, I do have a clue on that and I want to know why we’re accepting that kind of production.

…..I have to defend Slade, here. He was thrown into the fire as a redshirt freshman in 2011, and moved around to boot. Never a chance to just learn one position exclusively. He took his lumps. He was better, last year, but really had no chance to show it in a poorly-designed and run offense.

…..Slade looked pretty good on A-Day. A lot of those 10 yard Payne runs were on Miller and Slade’s side, and they were dominant.

…..I hate to bad mouth any Auburn player, but I thought Patrick Miller was the one in over his head last year. You REALLY don’t want to play true freshmen at O-line, particularly not at tackle! Last one at Auburn I can remember who did well as a true freshman was Marcus McNeil back in 2002.

You’re not bad mouthing a player when you are analyzing his production. I don’t see it the same way. I’m fine with coming out against a kid’s lack of production. This is football in college. I go over production every day in college. I don’t judge their character or what makes them as a person good or bad until I hear enough things to realize they’re bad news I see nothing wrong with judging a player’s on the field performance and I personally will continue to do so. I think that’s part of what a blog on the internet is all about personally. You’re not insulting a kid when you say he was terrible on the field last year. Facts are facts and you are right about Patrick Miller. I think they played Miller there because he defected from LSU so late and they wanted to show that if you drop LSU for Auburn you’ll get more playing time. Miller was in way over his head and he was completely awful.

On the defensive line, I’m not that worried about it until I see what our three five star incoming defensive linemen do when they get here. We’re going to have to have those kids produce and produce quickly. If not, we’re going to lose the interior part of the game on defense game in and game out and that is scary for turning things around here at Auburn.

Really good wrap up Acid. I’m always interested in what your thoughts are on how Auburn does and your the best at breaking things down for the fans.
I liked what I saw Saturday except for the QB play. Frazier is a team guy but he was doing the same things he did last yr. namely throwing high balls and stairing at his receiver, not looking them off. Wallace is a hustler. Kid plays with confidence, but most of the time his deep throws are a little short. So if Jeremy Johnson and Nick Marshall can grasp the offense when they get here, I feel like one of them may be the starter next fall.

Well, I’m bummed about qb play. I really wanted Wallace (or Frazier) to have a really solid day. I like what I’m hearing about the o-line; wish that the d will step it up. At least there seems to be progress being made on both sides of the ball.

I’m in Knoxville tonight…wish I could send some behind the lines reports on the Vols…heading to a different part of campus tomorrow…War Eagle!!

Did anyone else watching the game on TV notice that they quit showing replays after the first few plays, because there wasn’t time to complete the replay before the subsequent play had begun? That encourages me.

So does this: “All five scholarship receivers caught at least two passes.” (from Joel Erickson’s summary)

First time posting. Been following for a couple years now. I also like other Auburn fans am very excited about our future with Gus. Acid I would just like to say I always like reading your break downs. Just like you my son and I got to campus early at 8:30 Sat. We had to get a couple T-shirts and lemonades before we started our day off. We walked all over campus and every time I wanted to sit down for a min. my son would coach me on to see more. He is so ready to be a tiger. We too were at the west gates at 11 that morning and man was it cool for shorts and t-shirts, but was well worth it having the chance to get great seats. We were able to get on the 40 in section 5.

Was very interesting watching Coach standing behind each play. You could tell he is in complete control of that offense. As for QB: I hope Coach was seeing what we all were in the stands. Khiel was starring down every receiver. A full of us in the stands were calling out who Khiel was throwing to as soon as he took the snap. So much it was almost comical. Not Really! Wallace on the other hand would survey the field and at times check down to his third option. But Wallace had his on issues like you pointed out. If these two can’t produce more I really see Marshall coming in and stealing the show.

Artis Payne is the real deal! I remember on drive they got to the 25yrd line and Coach had Payne run 6 consecutive plays in about 2mins and you could tell by the end Payne was in pain.

Jay Prosch is a beast, period.

I really see Sammie Coats being a star player this year. He will make some big plays.

Ok I have gone on long enough but one last thing on the Mincy hit. Although the hit was a little high it was not intentional from my perspective. But I including other fans around me, we were very upset about how Mincy acted after the play was over. He was running around jumping up and down trying to celebrate with other team members about the hit and was not one bit concerned about his team mate that lay on the ground hurt.

Great day for some Auburn football. Went from freezing my whoohas to getting a good farmer’s tan. Got to remember the sunscreen for the bald spot or quit wearing the visor. Got to tour the locker rooms – cool. Appreciated the stores marking everything up 75% and then selling them 50% off, but whatever. I got a couple ‘fear the stache’ t-shirts real cheap – they will be good for detailing the car. Hats off to the marketing team and ‘Fanfest’. Good time for the kids and families. You should see the ramp at the practice fields that the boys have to run – I think it’s like a 40 degree incline. The kids were asking why we had to cut down the trees when they still had green on them.

Here are my football thoughts:
– #6 R I C A R D O L O U I S ! Get used to hearing that name. He probably had 20+ touches
– “Bring the Payne!” He’s our good karma for handling Michael Dyer properly…
– HUNH – the guy in the replay booth will get half the game off
– Wallace has more of the intangible ‘IT’ factor over Frazier IMHO. I think the team will respond more to Wallace.
– The ‘Big Nasties’ played well; will be interesting to see them handle the blitz
– What? Is Auburn finally deep in the secondary???

…..Farmer’s tan! I’m with you, there. And I was SO careful! I parked at 8:45 AM on Dumas drive over by the junior high, and applied the Bullfrog. Made sure I got my ears, cheekbones, and nose extra slathered! I did my neck, too. Was NOT going to get burnt on a cloudless day!

…..Problem was, it was 45 degrees at that hour, and I was in a long sleeve Oxford-cloth with thermals underneath. At kickoff, Jordan Hare was around 70 or so, and I was uncomfortably warm. Rolled my sleeves up, and didn’t think much about it. My forearms got COOKED! Ooops.

What an awesome day it was… will remember this year’s A-day forever. Great to have the opportunity to share it with my 7 year old son. War Eagle to all the fans out there who made the weekend epic for me and my family.

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